


We All Look The Same When We Turn Off The Light

by Swump (Zelan)



Series: 12 Days of Whumpmas - VLD [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fever, Gen, Sick Lance (Voltron), Sickfic, VLD Whumpmas 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-14 02:22:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12997740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zelan/pseuds/Swump
Summary: Lance is sick. Shiro worries. Pidge consoles him.





	We All Look The Same When We Turn Off The Light

“How’s he doing?” Shiro looked up to see that Pidge had poked her head through the door of Lance’s bedroom, a concerned expression on her face.

“No change,” he told her with a frown. He’d been sitting at Lance’s bedside for hours, but Lance’s fever hadn’t gone down at all; he hadn’t opened his eyes once since that morning.

“At least he hasn’t gotten worse,” Pidge offered, but Shiro could tell that she was just as anxious as he was.

Shiro traced the backs of his fingers from Lance’s temple down to his cheek, feeling helpless that nothing he was doing could get rid of that uncomfortable heat. Pidge walked over and sat on the edge of Lance’s bed, placing a hand on his knee in a futile attempt to comfort the sick paladin.

“I’m mostly worried about exactly what we might be dealing with,” Shiro confessed. “If we were on Earth I wouldn’t be nearly as worried - I mean, his fever’s a little high for my liking, but Lance is tough. It’s just… up here, we have no idea where this might have come from and what it might do. For all we know this is the onset of the most deadly disease in the universe.”

“Hey,” Pidge said gently, snapping him out of the spiral of fear his thoughts were leading towards. “I understand why you’re scared, Shiro. I’m worried, too. And I won’t lie and tell you I haven’t thought the same thing. But… if there’s one thing that I’ve learned out here, it’s that space isn’t nearly as different from Earth as I thought.

“I mean, sure, we’ve dealt with some stuff that we never could have dreamed of on Earth. But think about, like… the Arusians, from way back. They were like nothing we’d ever seen at first. But really, they just wanted to live life, have some fun. That party with them felt natural, like if you closed your eyes and forgot how tiny they were you could have been back on Earth. Or the Olkari! Their tech is way better than anything we have on Earth, but their focus on developing it is similar to a lot of ancient civilizations on Earth that centered their lives around it. Even now, we’re still pressing forward with new ideas, adapting to change, just like them!” Pidge was animated now, her eyes lit up as she reminisced about everything they’d seen. Shiro couldn’t help but smile. Her enthusiasm was contagious.

“Besides,” Pidge added, calming down a little, “Allura and Coran have a lot more experience than we do. Maybe not with humans, but I think that we can trust them to figure out how to help him.” She gave Shiro a confident grin, seeming to have dispelled her own anxiety with her passionate speech.

Shiro felt better about it, too. “You’re right about all that. Thank you, Pidge.”

“Yeah, thanks Pidge.” The two jumped at the unexpected, raspy voice cutting in. Lance was awake now, sitting up in bed and smirking his usual smirk.

“Lance!” They were all over him in seconds, Shiro with a more gentle-one armed hug, while Pidge practically full-body tackled the blue paladin. Lance smiled at the attention, though he didn’t crow about it like he normally would have.

“So hey,” he said when they’d finally had their fill of him. “You know what else is shared throughout Earth and space?” Pidge and Shiro exchanged a quick glance, then shook their heads. “No? You disappoint me,” he teased. “It’s Christmas, of course.”

“I haven’t seen anyone celebrating it out here…” Pidge hedged uncertainly.

“You do now. We’re having a gift exchange. Right now. It counts,” he added when he saw her incredulous expression. “I don’t feel like getting up, but if you guys want yours, they’re in that compartment over there.” Lance nodded to indicate where he was talking about. “It should be easy enough to tell which ones are yours, we’ve all been color-coded since day one.”

Pidge wasted no time in making her way over; the allure of a gift was too much to resist. Shiro followed behind her. They opened the compartment to find six neatly wrapped gifts - four in the colors of the other paladins’ armor, and a pink one and an orange one for Allura and Coran.

By the time Shiro sat down with his black box balanced on his knees, Pidge was already peeling the green paper off of her much smaller box. He stole a peek at Lance; the blue paladin looked pale and tired, and the deep flush in his cheeks troubled Shiro, but for now he was awake and semi-alert as he watched Pidge pull the lid off her box.

Based on the size and shape of the box, Shiro had briefly wondered if it might be some sort of jewelry, but he realized his mistake when Pidge’s eyes grew wide the way they only did for one thing. “Lance…” she breathed, taking out her present with a delicacy most would use for a baby bird.

Lance’s smile hinted at smugness, but most of it was tenderness for Pidge’s reverent handling of the Olkari chip. “I figured you’d get a lot of use out of it,” he started, but she was already halfway out the door.

“I’m sure she’ll thank you for it tomorrow,” Shiro said.

“Honestly, her face is thanks enough. I’ve never met anyone else who loved technology so much.” Lance grinned. “I’ll bet she builds herself an android instead of marrying a person. Just you watch. Ten years, maximum.”

Shiro rolled his eyes. “I think that violates some sort of ethics law.”

“You say that like Pidge cares about laws. She broke into a quiznaking military school, remember? Now hurry up and open your present, I’m tired, I wanna go back to sleep.”

“Okay, okay.” Shiro started at the corner of the box, pulling off the black paper to reveal a sleek white box underneath. He lifted the lid and immediately snapped his head up to look at Lance, stony-faced.

“Really.”

Lance began laughing, his breaths mixed in with husky coughing. Shiro sighed, an exasperated smile spreading across his face.

The shirt in the box read, “Was your dad a thief? Because he stole all the stars in the sky and put them in your eyes.”

**Author's Note:**

> I stole the title from "No Difference" by Shel Silverstein. I stole the dumb pick-up line from my friend Ethan (thanks man).
> 
> Also, I wrote this as gen (as tagged), but you could also read it as Shidge or Shance if you wanted to.


End file.
